Alternate Springs
by MonkeyMoa
Summary: A place to publish some oneshots and small story pieces about Ranma 1/2. Expect lots of AUs, What ifs and concepts that I frankly do not know what to do with. A few of titles from the ideas I had: The Greedy Witch, Akane Tendo Vs The World, Magical Kung Fu Princess Ranma-chan!, The Crimson Mad Scientist, and more to come.
1. The Greedy Witch

**Author's Foreword:**

So, the first story I publish under this label. I'm fascinated by the concept of Nabiki being a witch, which is something a lot of people did around here on this site, but I can't remember if I've seen one with Ranma being an animal familiar to her... Well, there's " **Ranma Saotome doesn't MYAH!** ", but it wasn't really a summoning and Ranma was more like Kasumi's pet rabbit-cat-thingy than anything else.

I wish that particular fanfic got a follow up, tbh.

Anyway, here's the thing, enjoy!

xxx

* * *

 **The Greedy Witch**

.

As she finished the magical circle, the 13-year old smiled to herself. A work well done, if she said so herself.

She' been dabbling in some small time spells for quite a while now since she found that tome on that creepy bookstore that disappeared the moment she turned her back to it. Thankfully, the book actually worked, it would be troublesome to get a refund if that was not the case.

The spells she tried were a couple of simple things, like one that let her detect lost coins in a 3 meters radius and a hex to make people to lose pocket change more easily. While she was satisfied with her progress, she wanted more. But to do more, she needed more powerful spells, and to do more powerful spells, the book specifically said that she needed a familiar.

Hence why she was currently completing the summoning ritual to invoke one such being. She just hoped to avoid something that calls to much attention (like a fire elemental) or too gross (like a frog with bat wings). The book said that she had only one shot and there's no backsies once she summoned a familiar.

Anyway, time to stop musings and start this ritual. Clearing her voice, the novice witch started to chant:

" _Oh, beings of magic,_

 _Hear my call, for I plead for assistance!_

 _Listen to my soul's request,_

 _I just ask for one chance!_

 _I, Nabiki Tendo, summon thee,_

 _My familiar!"_

Good! The circle is starting to shine, just like the book said! Nabiki could barely believe that such simple attempt of poetry (which honestly wasn't one of the best things she has ever heard) could have a powerful effect in tearing a bit of reality to summon a creature.

Ah, the light is now covering the entire circle, not only the drawing! This means that her newest minio—I mean, familiar was coming through!

It was then that a black cat with red accents over it's ends elegantly pulled itself from the floor where the magical circle had opened a portal from wherever it came from. The circle stopped to shine and Nabiki stared at the cat with a satisfied smile that soon turned into a greedy shark smile as she thought about the possibilities that just opened themselves to her. She curiously noticed that the cat hadn't opened it's eyes yet, it was sleepy, maybe? Anyway, she needed to make eye-contact with the cat, it was an important step to the ritual.

"Hello, creature of magic, could you please look upon the windows of my soul? Tell me if I'm worth of one such as you." She asked politely. The book specifically said to be polite with creatures you summon. Especially if said creatures are to be your business partners.

The cat made an expression that seemed somewhere between frustration, defiance and "I know I'll lose, but goddammit, I will fight till the end!" It's weird that a cat could make such an expression, even more so that Nabiki actually could identify it.

"Please, oh creature of magic, look upon my eyes, for I am in need of a partner!" she tried again. This time, the cat made a weird sound that suspiciously sounded like snort.

"Yeah, right. Then the deal is sealed for reals and I'm stuck as someone's slave, thanks, but no thanks." Oh, okay, she wasn't expecting that!

"What did y—" she was suddenly interrupted when the circle shined again and suddenly a hand grabbed the cat's tail and made electrocuted the feline. It had no choice but open it's eyes wide, all three of them, and look directly into Nabiki's.

Suddenly everything went even more bright as both Nabiki's and the cat's eyes shone in the same shade of blue color.

When the room got dark again, or at least just dimly lit, only Nabiki and the cat were left. No signal of the weird electrocuting hand. Then the cat started to cuss with some choice words about whoever was the owner of said hand.

"-dammed goddess of magic, if I was human I would kick her ass like there's no tomorrow." Finally stopping their piece, the cat looked at his slack-jawed summoner. He makes a resigned sound and introduces himself:

"Hello, my name is Ranma Saotome," then suddenly his third eye flashed like a camera, temporarily blinding Nabiki. "Uh, sorry 'bout this."

And then Ranma coughed up a polaroid photo.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Believe it or not, this isn't supposed to be a NabikiXRanma shipping. I get that a lot of people like this particular ship and I particularly enjoy some fics that have this ship, buuuuuuuut I'm also actually really into AkaneXRanma. Mostly because I'm usually pretty vanilla when it comes to my ship tastes.

Though, honestly, I'm not really a diehard defender of it. Limiting myself with that would limit the kind of stories I could read, you know?

Anyway, about this story, I just had this idea today (as in, February 1st, 2019) and I decided to write and publish it as soon as I could to get it out of my head. I don't actually know what to do with it, but I see potential for comedic hijinks with this setup. I can see Nabiki using Ranma as a way to collect blackmail, Nabiki teasing Ranma on a unrequited crush on Akane, maybe a team of magical girls shows up to mess with Nabiki's schemes... Lots of fun stuff, y'know?

That's not even counting how the canon events play out with Ranma out of his usual role before he even meets Shampoo and Akane (on this AU he already met Ukyo).

As how Ranma ended up as a magical cat... I dunno yet, my favorite idea for now is that he died and this is an unexpected side effect of neko-ken training. I think I'll expand it if I ever come back to this concept.

 **UPCOMING IDEAS:**

\- _Magical Kung Fu Princess Ranma-Chan!_ : In wich Ranma falls in The Spring of The Drowned Magical Girl, tormenting everybody with sugar-coated magic and secretely loving every second of it.

\- _Akane Tendo vs The World_ : Akane is a normal girl, at least as much as martial arts heiress with a knack for videogames can be. That is, until she meets a girl called Ranma Saotome when she showed up during her dreams "as a shortcut to China" and over a year later had been engaged to a boy with the same name. Now she is unwingly dragged into a battle against The League of Evil Fiancées!

\- _The Crimson Mad-Scientist_ : A Spring that exchanges physical prowers for high intelligence, what happens when a genius of martial arts falls into The Spring of The Drowned Genius Girl? A Ranma 1/2 fanfic concept with mild elements of Tenchi Muyo and the webcomic Girl Genius.


	2. Akane Tendo Vs The World

**Author's Foreword:**

Scott Pilgrim is a very important story to me. Both the comic and the movie means a lot for me as I can relate to being a 20-something gamer that is considered a childish person that hasn't grown up yet. Scott's journey to growing up so he can be someone Ramona can love is one of my favorite things in all the stories I have ever read.

And that's why I decided that a Ranma 1/2 fic with Scott Pilgrim elements would be interesting.

I can see this being it's own series in the future, but for now I'll just give you this "Prologue" to test the waters.

I hope you guys like it.

xxx

* * *

 **Akane Tendo Vs The World**

 **1\. The Game**

Akane's last interaction with her mother was when she was but a small child of 9 years of old.

Her mother, an energetic lady full of life and ideas, contracted a mysterious disease that turned her into a frail thing. However, that didn't damper her drive to create things, play with her daughters and spend a generally good time with her husband and family.

Even when she eventually got stuck in a bed, she always excitedly made some time to play videogames with her daughters. She, being a game developer for a company that developed arcade games and a few console rpgs, was always passionate about the subject and considered gaming more than a hobby, it was a way of life.

It's something that her children absorbed in different degrees, with her youngest being the most excited about it. It was funny how the youngest child was the most passionate about the subject that each of her parents dedicated their lives to:

The Mother, videogames.

The Father, martial arts.

"Akane, you're such a tomboy!" she always laughed at how her youngest puffed her cheeks whenever she teased her about it. _It's just so cute!_

Honestly, it was a shame that she will never get to see that adorable face again. But she could do one last nice thing for her daughter, a life changing experience.

On her last day on Earth, she requested to spend a bit of an alone time with the members of her family, one at a time, to tell them her last wishes. Akane was the last one, face full of tears and snot from excessive crying. She smiled sadly at the cute girl and hugged her back with all that was left of her strength when she came running to her.

"Sweetie, I have a gift for you. A friend of mine, at my request, brought me something that I think you should have." She shuffled a bit to try to reach a nightstand close to the bed. Sighing for not having energy even for that, she turned to her daughter. "Akane, could you open the second drawer of that? Yes, that one."

Looking at the contents of the drawer, the young Tendo only a notebook and a sack. Curiously looking back at her mom, she picked the sack (which a tinkling sound) and the sick woman nodded positively. Opening the little sack, she looked over it's contents.

Golden Coins.

More precisely, five golden quarters, ones especially made to work only with arcade machines.

"Those, sweetie, are special coins." She started at seeing the questioning look her crying child was giving her. "They only work with only one arcade game, one that I developed myself with a couple of friends. I want you to play that game as my last gift to you." She said with a gentle smile.

"And were I can find the game, Mommy?"

"That sweetie, is part of your quest." She smiled mysteriously. "The machine is secured with a friend, all you need to do is find it. It will take some time, my friend is pretty good at hiding things he doesn't want other people to find, but I'm sure you can do it."

"Ok, Mommy! I'll do it!" said the little bluehead. "I'll find your last game and beat it with a high score!"

"That's the spirit, sweetie! And please, don't tell the others about the coins or the game, it would only make them worry about you." She added, thinking about how the other members of her family would react if they knew what achieving victory on her last game actually entailed. "Well, you can tell Kasumi, but not Nabiki, your father nor anyone else, ok?"

"Ok!"

That was six years ago.

She never really found the game her mom was talking about, nor her friend who supposedly guarded it. She researched game's name, Brawling Dreams – The Light of The Dreamscape, but could only find urban legends about it and it's development. It was funny how she, someone related to the person involved on the legends, couldn't find any reliable source for a location or even an image of the game running.

She never managed to find it, no source could point her to where it was located and she always followed the gossips and conspiracy theories about it that she found on the internet: she went to abandoned warehouses, visited videogames museums, tried to find "ghost arcade places", and so on and so on. Her quest led her to many adventures with her two best friends, sure, but she always only met frustration at the end of them.

But she never gave up, no matter how much her eldest sister, Yuka or Sayuri insisted that she should just let it go. She would never give up until she finally encounters the last game her mom made for her to play.

====↑↑↓↓←→←→BA====

She was in a dark place illuminated only by some glowing of the screens of many machines. She noticed how some of the games were games she played on actual Arcade machines, but a lot of them didn't really make sense as she was pretty sure that those where console exclusives or mobile games for cellphones.

All of them, however, where games she did actually play.

She recognized this dream.

It was the one where she finally found the place where the mysterious "Last Game" her mom left behind was located. She would walk around among the machines until she finds the one, the cabinet is always different, with some illustration on the sides that was always random and fuzzy. When she finally spends one of her quarters and push one of the buttons, she will wake up and be frustrated for the rest of the day.

At least that's how it usually goes, she wonders. She, at that moment, is weirdly aware of the dream, as if she isn't actually dreaming but still felt that little sleepy feeling that indicated that she was still in her warm bed.

"Hey, neat place!" said a voice she never heard before.

Startled, Akane turned around to see the other person on this place:

A pigtailed redhead with a smile on her face was walking around the place. She was dressed in a red cheongsam that did just enough to cover her modesty, black kung fu slippers with no socks completed the ensemble. Weirdly enough, she was dragging a very big and fat black and white creature that one would identify as a panda. If pandas could use a karate gi and glasses, that is.

Also, it was unconscious and if the melon sized bump on it's head was any indication, the redhead was responsible for that.

But Akane had weirder dreams, only because this one was very lucid it didn't mean that it would stop it's bizarre nature.

"Ah, you, over there!" Akane's musings where interrupted when the smiling redhead excitedly approached her without a care about the panda's overall well-being. Stunned by the dream character actually trying to interact with her, the girl easily reached her and stopped in respectable, but still a bit too friendly, distance. "You're the one hosting, right?"

"Huh? Hosting?"

"The one having the dream." She explained as if she was explaining something to a child.

"Uh, yeah, sure. I guess?" The other girl smiled brightly.

"Great! I'm Ran- I mean, just Ran, yeah! Ran Saotome!" She said nervously while extending her hand.

"Uh, Akane Tendo." She shooked the other girl's hand, who got more excitedly and used her two hands to shake it even more energetically. She turned to look around a bit and whistled for a bit before speaking again.

"Man, this is a nice place your brain cooked. Did ya play all of 'em? I've never played videogames, my Old Man says they're time wasters, but honestly, if someone's put time and sweat on making something like that, is it really a waste of time?" She sure was talking a lot, the bluehead mused, which made Akane confused.

Was this girl a fruit of her imagination or not? She sure isn't acting as a npc on a dream.

"Hey, so, I'm just passing by because I need to go to China and your dreamscape is just perfect for that!" she said with a smiled, as if Akane could make sense of what she was talking about. "My Old Man," she said with a distaste while point to the unconscious panda, "wanted to swim all the way there! Can you believe this guy!? I mean, I always knew he was insane since the neko-ken bs he put me through, if he wasn't the only family I have left, I would've ditched him somewhere in the mountains." She completed with a dark gaze to the distance.

While a little confused by this apparition, the Tendo girl could relate to daddy issues, giving how her own father developed a complex about training other people since her mother died, to the point that he didn't even train his own daughter anymore. To him, hitting his "precious baby daughter" was a torture.

To himself.

"Oooooh, what is that one over there?" Ran said, again interrupting the bluehead's musings.

She looked to where she was pointing and sure it was the elusive Game her mother created. However, this one seemed different in that it didn't have any cabinet art around it. In fact, the cabinet was a bit rough around the edges, as if it was more of a DIY thing instead of an actual manufacturer.

Moreover, she could clearly see the actual game.

There, lighting the room, the demo was rolling on the screen:

ONCE UPON A TIME… *the glowing white words appeared on the black screen.*

THERE WAS A GAME!

NOT ANY GAME,

BUT _THE_ GAME! *the black background transformed into a scenery of an antique Japanese dojo lighted by the moonlight* (weirdly, it reminded Akane of her own home.)

A BATTLE TO CHANGE YOUR DESTINY! *a handful of character art flashed on the screen* (one of them looked suspiciously similar to the girl by her side, but with a darker shade of red.)

CAN YOU WIN THIS CHALLENGE? *golden coins started to rain from the sky as the characters started to battle each other*

INSERT THE SPECIAL COIN TO START! *a golden coin animated sprite started to spin around on the screen*

As that last message appeared, Akane felt something suddenly appearing in her hand. The familiar weight of the five special coins inside the sack made her conclude something.

 _This is it._

 _She had finally found it!_

Sure, it was something she always thought whenever she had this particular dream and it probably wouldn't differently, but _this is a particularly different dream_ , so she can let herself hope that this was actually the one time she found it.

"Ooooh, so cool! So stylish! Won't ya play it, Akane?" said the _very big difference_ of her usual dreams. Giving the redhead an excited smile, the young Tendo bouced with energy to the machine.

She put a coin on the slot and a punching sound was made. The Start Screen then changed to the Character Selection one. There were a dozens of character to choose and Akane felt tempted to choose the one that looked like her "dream friend", until said friend pointed something interesting.

"Hey, look, that one looks like you! But with shorter hair, though."

And sure there was a character like Akane, probably what her mom imagined she would look like when she grew up. Her mom obviously didn't count on her growing her hair out, but the similarities to the blueheaded girl couldn't be dismissed. The character on the screen, simply named "Kane" ( _really, Mommy?_ She chuckled to herself), was a teen with short blue hair, using a karate gi not that much diferent to the one the Tendo girl actually owns. A black belt is wrapped around her waist and there's a band-aid was glued over one of her cheeks, giving a cute and very tomboyish look to the already very tomboy looking character.

Even her character description that appeared on the side when she left the selection cursor over her stated that she was a "Heiress of Martial Arts School, Kane wishes to prove herself to her father as someone reliable and perfect to bring the School to an age of glory. This cute tomboy has a bit of a self-confidence problem regarding her femininity, but she won't let that get in the way of her true goal!"

Akane sighed, part in annoyance at being called a tomboy by her mom even from beyond the grave, but she also felt a warm feeling of fond nostalgia at being described as a "cute tomboy".

All those things combined made the decision for her.

She choose the character that so obviously is based on her.

====↑↑↓↓←→←→BA====

After spending three of her five coins, Akane was finally on the last boss.

Each golden coin gave her "2 continues", which was pretty forgiving in the bluehead's opinion, though most of her continues where only spent on the last three bosses out of all the characters. The last boss, specially, was some cheating bastard and consumed two of the three coins she used.

The game had an interesting mechanic that seemed to be lifted from an rpg game: with the points she earned from combos and uses of special moves, she could buy "technique scrolls" to learn new moves and combos to use, giving her some time to test them out before going to another fight. And she sure was using all of her skills to keep up with the last boss.

Speaking of the last boss, it was a bit on the… non-descript side.

She could only make that it was a shadow with glowing eyes. While the size wasn't that different from the other characters (it was not covering half the screen like the bosses on the vs Capcom that Akane loves so much), it was pretty much shapeless. She could see that it used special moves based on cuts and air blades, though.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! You're so close! This time you'll get it, 'Kane!" said the excited redhead. She opted to nicknaming her "Kane" just the character she was playing as because of the similarities. She occasionally turned to make sure the panda ( _which she said was her father, the weirdo_ ) was still unconscious, but she was way more invested in cheering for Akane from the sidelines while watching her play. It was kinda endearing, the bluehead thought.

"SPECIAL COMBO FINISH!" Screamed the arcade computerized voiceover.

"I DID IT!" Screamed the bluehead.

"YOU DID IT, AKANE!" Screamed the redhead, glomping the winner.

"And with a special combo! Did you see that, Ran!?" She said excitedly, while returning the hug.

"Oh, man, oh man! I thought fighting games wouldn't measure to the real thing, but this was so fun!" Ran said separating herself just a bit to look at Akane's happy face. "Some of these fights even gave me some ideas for actual techniques, I can't wait to try when I get to China!"

"Oh? You _have_ to come back and tell me how that goes, Ran!" she said to the excited ginger.

"Sure, 'Kane, you're my friend, I'll do that without problems!" she responded with a smile. She looked briefly to the screen, "Oh, look, it's asking for your name!"

Akane turned to the game and sure there was a screen to input her name to the scoreboards. She briefly wondered how many people actually tested this game and if they would show up when she finished inputting her name there.

Hitting END, she was transported to the scoreboards.

1\. 1. AKN - 85789000

2\. 2. TND - 84500867

3\. 3. STM - 84500854

4\. 4. ….

"Wow, you're so good, 'Kane!" the redhead turned to look at the girl's face, but instead of a bright smile, she found the girl crying. "'Kane? What's wrong, 'Kane?"

Sniffing, the girl turned to her dream friend with big tear rolling down her face and snot running out of her nose, but she had a shaky but very smile on her face. She fiercely hugged the other girl, while saying:

"I did it! Finally, I did it, Mommy! I finally finished your game, Mommy… I hope that you're happy, I know that I am…"

Ran, seemed a bit confused by the entire thing, but she did her best to offer comfort to the crying girl and Akane sure appreciated that gesture.

They kept that way for a while, a comfortable silence only interrupted by the occasional soft sob of the blueheaded girl. Then the crying girl noticed that things started to fade…

"Wait, I—I think I'm waking up…!" she said exasperatedly. "Oh, no, what will happen to you!? Will you disappear forever? I don't want you to go away, Ran! You've been here all the time with me, I don't want to let you disappear from this reality!"

Ran chuckled softly. "Don't be silly, 'Kane. All dreams must end sometime…" she looked deeply on the girl's eyes. "Don't worry about me, though. As I said, I was just passing by here, when you wake up, I'll be just on my way to China."

Akane still looked uncertain, though.

"Will… Will I ever see you again?" she asked biting her lower lip and making a soft sniffle.

The other girl smiled softly and her eyes sparkled with warmth. It was so comforting…

"I don't know, Akane. I really don't, but I will sure try to."

And when everything ultimately faded…

…she could hear Ran wishing her a good morning.


	3. The Crimson Mad Scientist

**Author's Foreword:**

I will be honest with you, I barely revised this. The introduction was something that I had done a few months ago, but the "chapter 1" was something I wrote entirely today (Feb 4, 2019). It just needed to get out of my mind, specially the closing part, which was something that came suddenly to my head while I was writing.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I'm not smart enough to write about actual scientific shenanigans to make this more interesting for people who are into nitty-gritty factual details. So, while I'll do some research to confirm some thing or another, don't expect a lot of that for this version of Ranma.

No, this version of Ranma is more of a cartoonish Mad Scientist that cackles and screams "EUREKA!" whenever she comes through a breakthrough that has horrible moral and metaphysical implications.

In other words, this Ranma is bonkers.

Enjoy.

xxx

* * *

 **The Crimson Mad Scientist**

 **Introduction**

As Ranma's mind barely understood that he fell on one of the Jusenkyo Cursed Springs ( _Why hadn't them listened to the Guide again…!?_ ), he just prayed that it wouldn't be something bad and/or humiliating. His father was already obsessive about making him "A Man among Men", if he got something humiliating that would make his Old Man even more annoying…

He felt Destiny itself embrace him under it's warm and wet arms, the change burning his entire being and confusing his mind.

And then _She_ emerged.

Ranma looked at the Guide, then at her Father turned panda, then she looked at itself, barely registering what the guide said.

"…tragic story of girl who was way ahead her time! It also one of the most recent Spring, barely 100 years old!" Then he paused when he noticed the quiet shock of the petit girl, with a quite funny expression, a mixture of unbelieving eyes and relieved surprise. "Not too bad, Mister Customer, at least still human!"

She looked at him again wide eyes. Then looked at herself in panic: a short thing, a distant part of her mind thought that she could probably pass herself as a child if she didn't have gained a pair of the biggest boobs she has ever seen this close. She copped a feel on her behind, quickly determining that " _damn, she has a nice butt."_

Her Father turned panda snapped his… _claws_ at her face, trying to get her attention and stop staring at the horizon like her mind was rebooting after a particularly intense error on her mental OS. He noticed that she slowly looked him, then to the Guide again.

And then she started to laugh.

But it wasn't a laugh of someone who was having a great time, nor that of someone that heard a particularly funny joke. No, it was something creepier, a darker version of what a sane laugh should be.

It started as a low chuckle, then a medium to high laughter and soon a full-blown mad cackle befitting of a super-villain or a mad scientist from a cartoon. It was certainly unsettling and creeped the fuck out of the Guide.

Yep, Genma Saotome finally did it. He snapped the last shiver of sanity his son had.

Not that he particularly gave a damn. Being mind-broken at some point was a given on anyone training in Anything Goes Martial Arts.

xxx

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Here comes the Genius Beauty, Ran-chan!**

Ah, Nerima.

Often considered an insane place by the people visiting.

What if they had a bit of a problem with martial artists? What if property damage was constant? Sure, a fight could break at any moment because one martial artist stole another's bread for lunch, but at least the crime rate was incredibly low and living costs were cheap.

At least they didn't have aliens or youma.

No, if Tomobiki has aliens and Azabu-Juuban has magical girls fighting demons, Nerima has _martial artists_ as it's "touristic charm". That and the occasional ghost or cursed magical object.

Keeping that in mind, the scene that the Nerimans out on the rainy streets where witnessing was still pretty weird to them: a floating redheaded girl with a ring of seven spherical drones shooting lasers at a particularly skilled and fast giant panda. At each exploding shot, she laughed maniacally while her pigtailed hair and white lab coat flowed around the rainy air in a wild manner.

"Run, little panda, RUN!" she cackled. "To the Tendo Household! Show me my so called fiancée! If you really think things will go as you planned, you have another thing coming, Old Man!"

Ah, the Tendos. That sorta explained it. Not really, but it was something.

Any Neriman worth their salt knew them. The father, Soun, was on the city council and was the one who regulated some of the martial arts shenanigans some years ago, before his wife died. His daughters, each very different from the other, where known for their nearly unsurpassed beauty and for their most prominent individual characteristic: The Gentle Housewife, The Ruthless Businesswoman and The Martial Arts Heiress.

Although… _Another girl_ was meant to marry one of them? That part was a bit more confusing.

However, as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. And this particular cat had spherical drones shooting laserbeams. The people around the bizarre scene just decided to observe from a safe distance and when they eventually disappeared on the corner, they moved on with their day.

"So, you're saying that you don't know anything about this Ranma-guy?" Asked Nabiki, the middle-daughter. "You don't know if he is poor, if he is rich, good-looking or ugly?"

"Or a pervert!" screamed the youngest, Akane.

"Or if he is old enough for me, I prefer mature people." Said Kasumi, the eldest siter.

"I mean, you're selling us to an old for all we know!" exclaimed the indignant Nabiki. Soun felt like his ruthless middle-daughter was twisting a knife on his gut with each accusation, he had to save this somehow!

"Look, all I know is that Genma had a son and took him to a 10 year-long training trip, they spent the entire last year on China and now are coming back to Japan to fulfill the marriage pledge between the Tendos and Saotomes." Soun sighed. "Just… just give Ranma a chance, ok? It's a promise long in coming, from before any of you were even born."

They stared their father in silence with varying levels of annoyance. Finally, the gentle one sighed.

"Okay, Father, I will give Ranma a chance."

"Kasumi!" exclaimed the blueheaded fiery girl, part surprise, part feelings of betrayal.

"If this guy isn't at least cute, we're gonna have some serious budget cuts, Daddy."

"Nabiki!" exclaimed Akane again, but she felt less surprised and less betrayed by her middle sister. You can't feel betrayed when you're expecting to be betrayed.

Both sisters looked expectantly to their youngest sibling. Finally, she caved in, "Fine! Whatever! But if this guy gets any funny ideas, I'm kicking his ass!"

"Excellent!" happily shouted Soun. Almost simultaneously, they heard a blast on the front door of the dojo and mad cackling laugh.

"Daddy… you don't suppose that was your friend and his son, right?" asked Nabiki, part annoyed and part nervous. But she carefully only showed annoyance.

"Uh…" was his only response before getting up and seeing what happened to the front gate of the house, quickly followed up by his daughters. What they found on their yard was… well, they couldn't put into words what they thought of it, so the narration will have to suffice.

There, near the crispy and blackened destroyed gates, was an unconscious panda. Floating over it with a cocky and amused smile, was a pigtailed red haired girl. Her clothes, a mix of Chinese silks and a white lab coat, fluted around her, the motion of the ring of spheres orbiting creating an ethereal vision of a mystical goddess visiting the earthly plane. Her calculating eyes took interest on the family that came to witness her arrival, her smile got even more cocky with a show of shiny mischievous teeth.

 _So,_ Nabiki thought, _that's what is it like to be on the other side of those._ She felt and odd mixed feeling of kinship and fear for her own soul.

"Hello, there!" said the petit redhead. "Are you perchance the Tendos?"

"Ah, uh, yes? I mean, yes! We are the Tendos." Said Soun nervously. He had a sudden feeling of dread about this.

The girl chuckled and finally let her feet touch the ground, the spheres retracted to behind the ginger and seemed to disappear to nowhere. She approached the dumbfounded family and said:

"My name is Ranma Saotome, sorry about the gate!" she said cheerfully with a wave of hand.

And then the Tendo sisters had to save their father from hitting the floor.

"I-I don't, understand! Saotome said he had a son!" wailed a heartbroken Soun. "I knew he was a thief, a scoundrel, someone who does not respect authority, but to lie to his best friend!? How could you, Saotome!" he screamed as he made aggressive motions with his fists towards the sky.

"Oh, yeah, how could such an upstanding citizen with such a pure soul could lie to his best friend?" said the pageboy haired girl. Nabiki really was enjoying twisting the knife on her father's gut. The panda that came with the girl looked suspiciously offended by the declarations.

Ranma, on the other hand, sat with them on the low table enjoying the show. The motherly sister then caught her attention, "Ranma-chan, would you like some tea?"

"I greatly appreciate it! Oh, and if we're gonna stick with nicknames, please, call me Ran-chan!" she replied cheerfully.

"Ok, Ran-chan, I'll be back in a minute." She hummed a happy tune while on her way to the kitchen. Nabiki then turned to the redheaded girl with a calculating look.

"So, what was the deal with those floating spheres?" she tried to sound as uncaring as possible, but she was deeply curious nonetheless.

"Oh, these are my babies!" she exclaimed as the familiar ring of spheres appeared from her behind her seemingly out of nowhere, again giving her a look of a mystical being. One of then floated a bit towards Nabiki and Akane, the latter also curious about the floating devices. They noticed that each sphere was the same deeply dark red color, with inscribed words on each of them.

"These are flying drones I created myself before coming back to Japan." She explained with a smile, "they can make me fly a few meters from the ground and water, but aren't very good for high altitudes, BUT they can also shoot laser beams and turn into puppets!"

"Wait, what?" said Akane dumbly. Then the spheres exploded in puffs of smoke.

When the smoke dissipated, a bunch of mini-Ranmas rested over the head and shoulders of the original redhead. In unison, they said:

"We are the Shichifukujin! And we live to serve the beautiful and genial Ranma-sama!"

"I'm Ebisu!" said the one carrying a mini fishing rod.

"Daikokunnyo, pleased to meet ya!" said the one with a chef hat.

"Bishamon" said the one with thick eyebrows and a sheathed katana.

"Benten~, glad to make acquaintance~" Singed the one with a flute.

"Jurojin, *hiccup!* you all look nice! *hiccup!*" said the one with a sake bottle.

"Hotei in the house!" said the one with a silly moustache.

"The name is Kichijotei, sweeties" said the one with a lotus on her hair.

A moment of silence was followed up as the remaining Tendo sisters on the room tried to make sense of the scene. The loud whistle of the teakettle brought then back to reality and prompted Nabiki to say:

"…you named your puppets after the Seven Luck Gods and made them worship you? Wow, talk about a big ego."

"Well, I'm the greatest, so obviously my servants worship me!" said the redhead with an overconfident smile.

"Wise words, *hiccup* Ranma-sama!" the other puppets made some other agreeing declarations, with Bishamon just making agreeing grunts. Akane decided to interrupt them to ask something that is scratching her martial arts senses.

"So… do you practice martial arts?" the ginger was a bit arrogant for her tastes, but if she could get another female martial artist as a friend, Akane won't complain much about it.

"Depends on my current estate of being!" she answered in a cheerful way that still managed to sound cryptic.

"What does that even mean?" mumbled the bluehaired one. "Well, whatever, if you want, I can show you our dojo and we can spar for a bit!" the excitement quickly filled Akane. "What do you say? Friends?" she said with a smile while offering a hand.

Ranma seemed a bit dumbfounded at that moment, as if suddenly all that overconfidence went down the drain. She softly nodded and shyly smiled to the other girl while accepting her hand. As they went to the dojo, Nabiki observed everything with some mild interest.

"Suddenly so shy… I wonder why?" she said with a knowing smirk.

She smiled fondly at the dojo. While not the biggest one she had ever been into, Ranma could appreciate a well-maintained dojo when she sees one. She noticed a shrine to someone who looked a bit like Akane on one of the sides of the room, where said girl gave a quick prayer and turned to her new friend with a smile.

"So, you practice Kempo? Karate? Muay Tai?" asked the excited youngest Tendo.

"A bit of everything, but I'm not as good as I used to." She replied with a shrug that was seemed equal parts frustrated and resigned.

"Huh? What happened?" she worried about the redhead. "Did you have a training accident?"

"Yeah, you could say that…" responded the redhead in a cryptic tone, looking to the side. "However, I still am able to hold my own, don't think about going easy on me!" she replied with a cocky smile facing the bluehead.

They readied themselves, with Akane assuming a standard Tendo Style Anything Goes basic stance and her opponent assuming what was probably the standard one for the Saotome Style. They measured each other in silence for a couple seconds, until Ranma gave her a confident smile and motioned with her hand the universal gesture of "Come at me, bro!"

Giving the other girl an amused smile, the blueheaded martial artist advanced and started to apply a combo of punches, but the other girl simply avoided them with minimal movements, although the girl seemed a bit surprised about how close to connecting some of the punches had been. That kept going on for a while until, frustrated, Akane tried to drop the redhead off her feet with a low kick, but she avoided it by jumping over the Tendo girl and responded with a spinning back-kick to the bluehead's face.

Akane completed a rotation on the air once before hitting the floor. She got up and cleaned her split lip on her arm. Blood smeared on her gi, the Tendo girl gave a smile not befitting someone who just got their ass kicked. _Finally!_ She thought, _Someone who takes me seriously!_

"Wow, you're really good!" she appraised the other girl, who seemingly diminished in size with shyness and had a rosy tone to her cheeks. "With all that showoff attitude back there, I thought you would announce to the world that you're the best martial artist ever!" she giggled at the embarrassed smile of the redhead.

"Ah, you're just too gentle! That was a lucky shot at best! I mean, I think I used to be the best martial artist in the world for some time, but since…" she paused a bit, searching for words, "…my accident, I'm not as good as I used to. I can still kick ass, though!"

"You sure can! Is your style based on aerial combat?"

"Oh, yes, that's the Saotome Style specialty!" Ranma replied, "We focus on overwhelming our opponents with speed and distraction tactics, but since my accident I've been relying a lot on the latter." She hummed in a thoughtful, but happy tone. "This is the first time I've managed to get the upper hand on someone with just a kick in quite a while… last time I tried wasn't very good…" she suddenly got a shadowed look that Akane couldn't quite identify what it meant.

"What happened then?"

"…I would rather not talk about it, what happens in China, keep it China, y'know?" she gave a low chuckle that sounded rather sad, so Akane decided to not ask about it again. Not yet, at least.

"Akane-chan? Ran-chan?" said Kasumi, lightly opening the sliding door to the dojo. "Would you like to take a bath after all this exercise? I know Akane loves to take a bath after practice, so I already prepared the bath, you can drink some tea after it." She said in a gentle tone and left the two girls behind.

"Come on, I'll show you where the bath is!" said the bluehead while taking Ranma's hand, who could only stutter shy protests. When they reached the furo, she shoved the redhead inside the bathroom and started to take off her training clothes.

"A-A-Akane, wha-what are you doing!?" exclaimed Ranma, impossibly more red on the face than her own hair.

"What? It's cheaper if we both take a bath together!" she dropped her panties and bra, turned to the other girl and noticed that she was doing her best to ignore the naked girl by not facing her at all. "Wait, are you shy?" she asked teasingly.

"Uh, you know, I, uh, never bathed with other girls on the road and stuff…"

"Aww, and why is that so?"

"My Old Man really wanted a boy, you see, so, uh, he raised me as he would raise a boy, so, you know, that's the reason…" she finished awkwardly.

"Well, your father seems like a… well, an idiot." Akane winced a bit. "Sorry about that, but…"

"No, no! I totally agree with you! My Old Man is really a fool, that's why I had my accident, we went to a training ground in China and there everything just… changed." The redhead sighed while making frustrated gesticulations. "Since then I've almost died more times in a week than in an entire year, which is amazing if you compare to the sort of insane training my Pop likes to put me through."

"You had your accident last week!? Oh god, and I was sparring with you just so soon, I'm so sorry, it must be…" the redhead then started to making calming movements with her hands to stop the suddenly panicking bluehead.

"No, no, no, no! I had my accident almost a month ago! I'm already kinda used to it now, don't worry!" she added with a smile.

Akane looked at earnest eyes of the Saotome girl and sighed with a smile. "…Still, I feel bad for you… I know!" she said hitting a fist on her other hand, "I will help you with some things to compensate that! Starting by making you get over your shyness about bathing with other girls!" As soon as she declared this, she approached the redhead like a predator stalking her prey, the mischievous glint on her eyes doing nothing to make Ranma comfortable.

"W-what!? Wait, wait, I'm not ready to deal with th-AAAAAH!" was all she could say before she fell back in the bathtub and hit the back of her head, instantly KO'ing her.

"Ranma!? Are you okay!?" Akane pulled the redhead from the tub and started to apply CPR on the girl. She breathed in relief when the unconscious girl suddenly turned back to the land of living with a cough. Relief transformed into a series of rapidly fired apologies that the redhead tried to shrug off and calm down her new friend.

 _Honestly, I'm glad I decided to lock myself in girl mode,_ thought the redhead while smiling at her friends antics, barely registering the nakedness anymore. _That would've been a really awkward situation if she discovered my secret so soon…_

After the girls finally got around taking a bath, with both of them feeling awkward and embarrassed (albeit for different reasons…), they all reunited on the dinner table to talk about what they're going to do. However, when seeing Ranma coming down in new clothes accompanied by Akane, the Tendo patriarch suddenly addressed the redhead while pointing to the panda who sat in seiza near the table.

"Ranma, what a remarkable animal your panda is! He can write signs and understand what we say!" he said with a smile, which turned into a frown. "Though, he seems to have a bit of a tendency to tell tall-tales…"

"He says he is actually your father, Genma Saotome," suddenly interrupted Nabiki, with a narrowed gaze to the redhead. "While I could dismiss that as some sort of joke, I've seen too much today to not consider it."

The redhead smiled at that. "You're a smart one, aren't you?" the middle Tendo smirked at the small victory, though she didn't like how amused the ginger seemed. "You're correct, the panda is my father. I was hoping to keep this a secret for a bit longer, but oh, well! The truth is my Pop and I are cursed and _I locked our transformation curses_!" her giggle turned into a full-blown cackle when seeing the surprised faces of the Tendos.

The panda got angry at that and leaped at his supposed daughter, only for her to use her ring of spheres to create a spherical force field that kept the panda prisoned. She smiled viciously at the animal who angrily tried to destroy the barrier.

"Once upon a time, there was a martial artist called Genma Saotome~!" started the petit girl with a sing song voice, the spheres suddenly turning into the puppets once again while taunting the panda with accompanying vocals.

"~~A greedy, petty, and lazy little thief~~!" they sang in a cheery swing-y tune.

"He had a child, one that had a manly name, because that is what he hoped his son would be~!" Skipping around the room with each beat, the redhead got up on the table to put herself on the spot.

"~~Ranma Saotome, that was their name, what a poor child was 'he'~~!" the panda growled at the puppets.

"Poor Ranma, put through a life of harsh training, no place to call home~!" she gave a little dramatic spin on the table. "For so long on the road of life, she can't even remember her own mom~!" Hearing the gasps from the Tendos, she turned to her pandafied father. Putting a affectation on her voice and posture to look and sound like a small child, she said:

"Tell me, Daddy, is Mommy alive?"

"~~Tell me, Daddy, is Mommy alive~~?" repeated the barrier puppets over and over, taunting their prisoner while the redhead girl laughed maniacally, doing an amazing job at creeping out the Tendos.

She suddenly stopped laughing and the singing stopped with her, somehow making the entire room go dark with it. A couple of creepy seconds of silence passed, made even more scary by the icy seriousness of the petit redhead's face. That is until a low hum from the puppets indicating that the next act was starting.

"Then, one day, the foolish Old Man brought his 'son' to China, directly on a legendary training ground known as… The Pools of Sorrow!" she said dramatically, under a spotlight.

"~~Jusenkyo~~!" cried the puppets, filling the room with weird lights that reflected on the walls a scenery of hundreds of natural pools with bamboos jutting out of them. The Tendos where part marveled and part scared of the light show.

"Each of the springs on that cursed place had a tragic story of death and sorrow, suicides, assassinations and tragic drownings, each pool a victim, a story to tell~!" over the pools, ghostly apparitions of animals, mythical creatures, men, women and kids appeared.

"~~Don't fall on them, alerted the Guide, don't fall on them, or you will be cursed for life!~~" sang the puppets, seemingly dubbing a portly Chinese man dressed in a People's Army uniform.

"But the fool had trained his 'son' well, not only as a martial artist, but as a fellow fool who he could easily control, that was it was surprisingly easy for Ranma to follow~!" the redhead went dramatically to her knees, with a 'woe is me' posture.

"~~What a fool Ranma was, the poor child was not very smart~~!" the redhead chuckled at the insult.

"Indeed, Ranma, The Genius Martial Artist, was a fool! Like 'son', like father, what can you do~?" she shrugged her shoulders, while getting up.

"~~And trained they did, jumping over pools, fighting above them, like a pair of fools~~!" the wall images then showed the silhouettes of Genma and Ranma, fighting while jumping from bamboo to bamboo.

"It was then that tragedy struck, knocking the fatherly fool, Ranma discovered the horrors of each pool~!" The bigger silhouette was kicked by the smaller one, falling in one of the springs with a huge splash. From there, came not a man, but a panda.

"~~Cursed for life, now Genma looks like how he is inside too~~!" the way the puppets happily sang this line earned another growl from the panda and a giggle from the redhead.

"Not even noticing the change, because it wasn't much of one, the foolish martial artist, knocked his 'son' on the pools~!" The wet panda jumped through the bamboos and punched the smaller figure, making it fall on one of the pools.

"~~It was the tragic end of Ranma, The Genius Martial Artist!~~!" sang the puppets sadly.

"But it was the birth of Ranma, The Genius Scientific Beauty~!" sang the Saotome girl triumphantly.

"~~The Most Beautiful and Smart Woman in the World, that's our Ranma-sama~~!" completed the puppets with cheers and confetti.

Then all the lights came back, illuminating the dumbfounded and slack-jawed faces of the Tendo family. It was complete silence for a couple of seconds until Kasumi broke it by clapping enthusiastically, while completely ignoring the looks the rest of her family was sending her.

* * *

 **Author's End Words:**

So, I had fun writing the impromptu musical number!

Sure, it's pretty terrible, but I'm not really a musician or a poet. And english isn't my first language, so I just ask for some understanding (and maybe some help if you're incined to stuff like that).

Like I said up there, this Ranma is bonkers. She will be a cocky and overconfident bastard at one moment, a shy girl on another and suddenly sing a groovy Disney Villain Song (think Dr. Facilier from The Frog Princess) whenever she feels like the moment is asking for it. The pool she fell was The Spring of The Genius Girl, which besides gender changes, it transform physical prowers into brain power. On her 'girl-mode', Ranma is a Washu-level genius, but her martial arts are at the level of a experienced hobbyist/semi-pro fighter instead of the insane levels they had on the original series.

In fact, in this form, she is just almost at the same level as Akane and most of the usual Ranma's foes would easily beat her on a straight up fight. Ranma really had a lucky shot when she manage to make Akane fall with one kick.

Also, you may notice that this Ranma is a bit more on the sadistic side. That's because of the "Mad" part of the "Mad Scientist" description.

 **UPCOMING IDEAS:**

1) Hmmmm, I dunno. I still have to finish writing " _Magical Kung Fu Princess Ranma-chan!_ " and I have a bit for the start of the second chapter of " _The Crimson Mad Scientist_ ", but besides those, nothing much.

2) Although, I've been thinking about combining Ranma 1/2 and Danny Phantom without making it an actual crossover, just having the elements of one series adapted to the other. Maybe The Spring of The Drowned Ghost? _Ranma Half-a-Ghost_? The problem is that I dunno if that is interesting enough for me to even to come up with something for it.

Please, tell me what you thought about the stories published so far and if you have a suggestion, no matter how silly or dumb you think it is, post it on the comments =)


End file.
